When Ryan woke up things went from bad to worse.
He slept no more than an hour, with papers and notebooks scattered across his bed. He had been looking into everything he could to see if he had any information about where Karter and Ember were.
Last night he was up looking over all the security videos from the store, which was all easier said than done. The videos, however, were only so much help. It showed both abductions, yes, but what it didn't show who the second person was.
Greg was in both videos crystal clear, though Ryan knew he wasn't working alone. Greg might be manipulative, sadistic, and have a personality from hell, but he was never overly intelligent.
Today was Ryan's last shot.
When the pictures were sent of both Ember and Karter he knew better than to respond. She most likely had the phones destroyed. Ryan's theory was right when an unknown number texted with the meetup time for the exchange.
The only thing he could think to do given the time limit was to call a few old friends.
Ryan stumbled out of bed not caring if the papers stacked on the covers fell off. The apartment was dark, only the city lights shining through the windows. He wasn't sure what time it was but knew this had to be done now.
Ryan walked to his office in the dark and rifled through the contents of his desk until he found the old phone. It was a simple flip phone with a handful of contacts saved in the burner phone.
It took him a moment to look through the few contacts to make sure which one to call. Each of the contacts would connect him to a building and then to someone's assistant and if he was lucky, he'd reach the person he wanted to speak with.
Ryan pushed the green button and the phone began to ring. A woman with a thick New Jersey accent answered. "Navy, 2-9-1-7-5-0-3, Russo. Personal business," Ryan spoke.
"Connecting you to M. Navy's assistant, please hold."
The company Ryan had to work within the beginning years of moving to the United States might not have been the best in terms of legal-ness.
Ryan worked with a total of five different companies all in need of clean money. His business was and even still is the perfect place to launder money. Though he had cut ties with them all, he hated the feeling of having to look over his shoulder all the time.
When he no longer needed the extra cash the jobs offered he cut ties.
The phone was connected to M. Navy's assistant as the woman said. Ryan explained he needed to talk with the guy's boss and a simple explanation of who he was. All the information he needed to deem if it was a waste of his boss's time.
To Ryan's luck, he directed the line to Navy. That wasn't her real name, no one knew her real name. This name came from the fact all her agents would wear navy blue suits or in some cases navy blue casual wear.
"Mr. Russo, long time no talk," the woman greeted. She was in her mid-fifties and was one of the leading drug dispensers on the northern side of the states. She built the company on blood and bones, yet she treated those close to her like pure gold.
Ryan explained his situation and what he wanted from her. There was no use in small talk, it would only be a waste of time for both of them.
"At most I can send over two agents in an hour, much more than that will have to come out of state," she explained.
"That works," Ryan muttered.
They worked up a payment plan which was easy enough and then he hung up.
Before his brain could try and process anything he headed out to the kitchen and started cleaning off all the counters just in case the agents she was sending over needed the extra space.
Then Ryan went back to his room and threw on a pair of casual clothes. It was a simple pair of jeans and a hoodie he didn't even know he had.
As M. Navy had promised the two agents were at the door within an hour. Ryan buzzed them up and greeted them both.
The first one he saw before, a guy with neatly combed-back brown hair and a caramel complexion. The other one was Nevet, she was one of the more known field agents that worked for the company.
Both, of course, were dressed in neatly matching suits. Something that looked like it was out of a movie and any moment an alien was going to appear even if they were wearing the wrong colored suits for that movie.
In Italian Ryan told them where they could work, showing them to the kitchen.
Almost all the agents were from around the world, most only speaking one or two languages but understanding more.
Ryan had to hand over his phone to see if they could get the last location from the pictures Greg and the bitch who was behind all of this sent.
Ryan left them to their work making sure not to be in their way as they set up the computers and other equipment they had with them.
With nothing better to do, he thought back to the pictures. Each picture was sent by their phone.
Ember's was sent first. She was tied to a chair and glaring at the floor in pure disgust. Other than her hair being messed up a bit she didn't seem to be harmed that Ryan could tell, at least physically.
Twenty minutes later Karter's was sent. His was much worse. Like Ember, he was bound to a chair similar to her. Both of them had their hands pulled behind them with their feet tied to the bottom of the chairs.
The thing that made Karter's worse was the blood. On his right side, his shirt was covered in what looked to be blood. It was either that or he had a fight with jam and the jam won.
When the agents were done with Ryan's phone he texted Carmon. He made sure to keep it as simple as to not raise any red flags.
Not even fifteen minutes later was she bursting into the apartment with no hesitation. It was rare to see her in anything but heels-in the rush of getting over there, she had on a pair of fuzzy boots.
"Is it true?! That, that little prepubescent puta ass bitch, took my honeys'?!" she yelled, not caring about the others in the room.
"It wasn't him-I mean, I assume he helped but not just him." Ryan didn't even want to say the woman's name, but he needed to tell Carmon before she punched someone. She was staring at him waiting for more of an answer with crazy eyes.
"Quinley, she took them and is demanding I give her thirty million by the end of the day or she is going to be sending them back in body bags."
The comments Ryan didn't want to make, Carmon gladly did.
"Oh, because they would be useful to her if they were dead? At worst she sends you a finger or toe as a warning, but the bitch doesn't have it in her stone heart to do much more. You tried tracking the phones?"
"Nothing."
She nodded and continued to think out loud. Muttering profanities as she paced back and forth. She paused suddenly and turned to Ryan. "The watch!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.
The agents looked at her for no longer than a minute, they seemed to be used to behavior like hers. She ran over to them and told them about the tracker.
"What watch?" Ryan asked, not knowing what the hell she was talking about.
"The one I got Karter when he started his job!"
That wasn't an answer.
"They have really nice trackers in, if you know what you're doing you can hack them and track the person-I might have gave one to a fling when I thought she was lying to me-not the point. We need to try it."
As the agents worked on finding a location, they also sent for someone to get thirty thousand in fake cash. There was no way anyone would be getting that much money in such little time, even if they didn't care about raising red flags everywhere.
Once they had a plan Ryan texted Flynn for him and Holland to come over. Ryan wasn't all that fond of the plan. Carmon gave the agents all the information she had on how to track the watch.
Ryan hoped the agents understood what she was even saying. Combining someone who doesn't speak English all that well and a very quick talking mix of languages named Carmon Matos together was not all that great.
By the time Flynn and Holland showed up Nevet, the one in charge of the two agents was the one who found the location. It was two miles away from where they wanted to do the exchange.
They wasted no time in leaving.
On the way there they were all told the full plan, Ryan translated for Flynn and Holland who didn't seem to question it. They both were on board with it, to Ryan's surprise.
Flynn and Holland were the distraction.
They would be going to the building and drawing attention. Since Greg and Quinley didn't know them well, they shouldn't be in too much of harm's way.
One of the agents would be following behind them, one would go with Ryan and find a way into the building while the other agent would make sure Holland and Flynn don't get harmed.
There were better ways of dealing with the situation, easier ways, but those ways would take longer to get in the works.
This was what had to be done.